


Coffee and Civility

by XtaticPearl



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 10:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12274770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: Bucky doesn't know Tony well enough or maybe he does, but he's sure that they aren't friends. Not even after a war fought together against a mad purple alien-guy. He'd like to remedy that. Tony, on the other hand, doesn't understand what the problem is.





	Coffee and Civility

Bucky stared at the shattered remains of the red mug, eyeing the sloshed coffee with a growing sense of unease. He had _told_  Steve that this was a horrible idea but the damn punk hadn’t heard _a word_. 

“I’ll - I can get you another mug,” he said quietly, eyes darting over the spectacularly destroyed coffee mug that Bucky had come to know was Tony’s _favourite_  mug. 

“Yeah,” Tony muttered absently and Bucky glanced up for a flash to see Tony looking at the spilt coffee with a thoughtful frown, like he was puzzling out some problem, “Sure.”

There was always an air of tension when both of them were in a room, no matter how many days had passed since the Avengers had taken down Thanos and had put some band-aids over their fractured team. There were no band-aids for gaps as wide those between Bucky Barnes, a 1940s WWII soldier turned assassin turned whatever he was now, and Tony Stark, a weapons manufacturer turned superhero turned Avenger turned ex Director Of SHIELD. There was no medicine effective enough to soothe the wounds of a murderer and a victim. Bucky mused, on particularly dark days when the voice in his head would rattle dangerously against his brain, about who exactly the victim was. Wanda had asked during one of those days if it even mattered anymore. Victims were hidden in everyone nowadays, she had said. 

Bucky didn’t really understand Wanda, he doubted anyone other than Steve did. Even Clint didn’t really understand her, despite his die-hard protection of her. Steve did though, for some strange reason. Bucky didn’t, but he understood that she was quite an epitome of a contradiction between victim and victimizer herself. He didn’t judge that. He was sure he was the last person who could.

Anyway, he had never really made attempts to bridge the gap towards Tony Stark, simply for the reason that the man didn’t need that sort of awkwardness on him now. Unlike what others thought, Bucky knew that people who weren’t friends could still work as team-mates and be civil. Also, Bucky had worked with murderous Nazis for over seven decades before this. He was pretty sure that he could manage it easily with an actually worthy team-mate for once. Still, he owed it to Steve to at least try once, for all the trouble Steve had borne for him. The punk would be outraged at that sentiment but Bucky was rational enough to know facts, and Steve had taken on too much for Bucky to not even try to make an attempt with Tony Stark.

An early morning, perfectly brewed mug of coffee had seemed like a brilliant idea at first. Dropping the mug and shooting Tony a death glare had probably not been a good idea though. He hadn’t been _startled_  as much as _spooked_  when he had gotten lost in his thoughts and had missed Tony coming into the communal kitchen with a loud clear of his throat.

“I -,” _am sorry,_ Bucky thought, trying to push two simple words out of his mouth when the silence got too stifling, “- I don’t get the reference.”

Tony blinked up at him and Bucky wanted to whack himself in the face. With his metal arm. Questioning the strange kitty mug was _not_  the best way to go forward, but his brain had bursts of impromptu madness apparently.

“Yeah, that seems like a 40s trend,” Tony quipped and Bucky frowned but the man was already shaking his head, “No, that - just - bad joke, forget it. What reference?”

“The..” Bucky gestured to the pieces of the mug and Tony chuckled tiredly, looking less tense than Bucky had seen him before.

“The cat? Yeah, inside joke. Rhodey thought it was funny,” Tony shrugged and then peered at the coffee maker in front of Bucky, “Any more coffee left?”

“Uh,” Bucky glanced down at the coffee maker and found that no, the first brew was over, “Sorry, I had two cups and this…I thought I’d keep one for you. I, uh, could put another kettle on?”

“Yeah, for the best, sure,” Tony nodded once and wordlessly walked to the breakfast bar and sat on one of its high chairs, pulling out a hologram from thin air before getting to some work Bucky clearly didn’t know about. Bucky glanced down at the mess on the floor and then at the empty coffee pot. _First fuel then mess_ , he thought and stepped around the mess to go get the ingredients for the new brew.

“So,” Tony said after he had his first sip, having not mentioned the mug for a long while, “Bad morning?”

“No?” Bucky ventured, feeling a bit under scrutiny when Tony eyed him with a laser focus over the rim of his new mug, “I was just - just - “

“Spooked?” Tony guessed and Bucky felt his face flush a bit but tried to shrug casually, “Any special reason?”

“Well you kinda don’t wake up so early,” Bucky pointed out a bit harsher than he intended and tried to swallow back his nervousness under the curiosity of Tony’s gaze, “I just didn’t, uh, expect you here so soon.”

“You don’t get spooked so easy usually,” Tony quipped and Bucky took a sharp breath to find the right words but Tony waved his free hand dismissively, “Eh, just one of those days, it’s fine.”

“ _Those_  days…?” Bucky asked, not sure what Tony intends but Tony shrugs and leans back, twisting his neck to pop some stiff muscles.

“You know, days when you’re gonna try something you don’t wanna try but you kinda have to,” Tony offered casually and Bucky furrowed his brows, wondering how Tony knew that so easily.

“Yeah,” he muttered instead, finding it easier to not voice his curiosity and take the out instead.

“Was it me?” Tony asked after five more sips and Bucky tried hard to not choke on thin air. It would be a stupid way to die, some inane part of his brain says hysterically and he shuts that down even as he puts on his best poker face.

“Was what -”

“The thing you didn’t wanna try,” Tony clarified easily, eyeing Bucky lazily now, dark eyes assessing in ways that remind Bucky of Morita from days back when, and Bucky shuts _that_  line of thought as well.

“Just…coffee,” he replied and feels a voice like Steve’s imitating him in his head. _Just coffee_ , it says. He tells it to shut its stupid face.

“Ah,” Tony said, like that explains the mystery of Bucky Barnes in totality and Bucky is torn between asking an explanation for that sound because Bucky isn’t on any page of this conversation anymore and wanting to just go with the flow.

“I made it,” he said and wishes his mouth would sew itself shut, but swallows hard once and forces his mouth to continue, “As a peace offering.”

It’s so lame, the phrasing, that Bucky is ready to drown in coffee himself but Tony looks confused for the first time since that morning began.

“Peace offering,” he repeated and looked like the words taste wrong, “Why? Did we have a fight? Did I miss a fight even while having it?”

“Did we _not_?” Bucky asked, the question slipping out without intent and he rushes to clarify when Tony’s eyes widened, “You - we never - it was an official attempt.”

“At what?”

“At,” Bucky resisted the urge to wave his hands vaguely, because that wasn’t his style, that was Tony’s usually, “being civil.”

Tony stared at Bucky with a blank face for a whole minute before he put his empty mug on the table and leaned forward, elbows resting on top of the sleek wood.

“We were uncivil?” he asked in a genuinely confused tone and Bucky wondered if Tony was screwing around with him on purpose.

“Weren’t we?” he asked instead of asking if Tony had hit his head or forgotten the past or had slipped through a magic portal.

“Well, you eat like a starved bear and I wipe grease onto my clothes like an uncouth,” Tony admitted to himself, tilting his head slightly to consider the question, “But _uncivil_? I don’t know, when were we that?”

“You’re not my friend!” Bucky blurted out and blinked when Tony’s eyes looked a bit hurt, “I mean, we’re not - everybody else is - damnit Tony, we never sorted things out!”

Tony stayed silent, unnaturally silent for a while, eyes locked with Bucky before he leaned back and glanced at Bucky’s hand curled into a fist on the table.

“I thought we were,” he said finally and Bucky felt his brain going haywire.

“What?”

“I do the repairs on your arm,” Tony said calmly, eyes steady on Bucky’s, “You bring extra sandwiches when you come to the workshop even though you KNOW that you won’t eat the extra sandwich. I’ve carried you in battle six times now. You don’t complain about the music in my workshop. We’ve sat beside each other for four movie nights now and we shared the same blanket, even if it was longer than the couch, thank you weird Asgardian ideas. You’ve stood up to Fury for me when he wanted to oppose my decision to quit SHIELD. I modified BARF for you.”

Tony paused and leaned forward, eyes going a bit soft.

“What exactly made you think we weren’t friends?”

“Steve…”

“Is an idiot who’s trying to overcompensate,” Tony sighed and rolled his eyes but Bucky knew that it was more exasperatedly fond than genuinely pissed at Steve, “Just because he and I, or the others and I needed to talk things out doesn’t mean that you and I should too. Bucky. James, you’re not them. You weren’t my friend before the shitfest that happened. We don’t need a fresh start. We just need a start. And I thought we had that a long time back.”

“And I thought you were just trying to be professional,” Bucky exhaled with a rush of strange relief mixed with a sense of aching foolishness, “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Tony chuckles lightly, “Is that why you were acting weird with the coffee?”

“I was running on adrenaline and four espresso shots,” Bucky huffed and Tony raised his eyebrows.

“I thought it was two mugs?”

“Two large mugs,” Bucky quipped and Tony snorted.

“So,” Tony mused and Bucky noted the gleam of amusement in his eyes.

“So”

“What else had you planned to _woo_  me?” Tony waggled his eyebrows and Bucky rolled his eyes with ease.

“There was no _wooing_. There was just coffee.”

“Honey,” Tony drawled and Bucky quirked his lips at the teasing tone, “that’s like a proposition for me. Coffee is my aphrodisiac.”

“It’s bitter,” Bucky pointed out, wondering where this ease of conversation was coming from but grabbing at it with both hands.

“But you’re sweet enough,” Tony shot back with a grin and Bucky snorted, shaking his head at the ridiculous man he had been nervous about.

“Really? That’s your best line?”

“I don’t know,” Tony inched forward and winked, “Buy me another mug and some more coffee, I’ll give you better.”

“Get it yourself,” Bucky laughed and Tony made a mock offended face but Bucky knew enough now, to understand that Tony Stark was a lot closer than he had imagined him to be. 

Maybe band-aids did work over time, he mused as he let Tony’s banter wash over him.

If Tony drank from his new mug with two kittens on it from the next week and Bucky nudged his shoulder easily while passing him the mug at times, well, that was something between friends.

Steve looked like a cat that got the cream for a month.

Bucky found that he was okay with that too. It was all in the matter of friends.


End file.
